Back in late December of 2012 Pro-Wrestling NOAH announced that they will be utilizing over 20 wrestlers who are freelance, from other organizations, and/or foreign talent throughout the month of January. This came as no surprise seeing as how NOAH has lost multiple of it’s contracted performers and hasn’t been doing in the way of money either. On top of all that attendance has remained stagnant.

This is not only a smart decision on NOAH’s part but it was likely the only option they had. Paying a wrestler for a few one off appearances is cheaper than paying them a proper salary. This will also allow NOAH to perhaps bring in bigger names which may in turn result in larger crowd sizes. This open door policy could however make it difficult to establish stars and NOAH seems to have something against pushing a large portion their homegrown talent. In short this is a clear cry for help but it could turn out to be beneficial in the long run or it could be the final nail in the coffin.

NOAH has sense released an update on the matter. Today, NOAH announced this new masked man, who showed up after the January 6th show, will be competing as Maybach Taniguchi “Jr.” There is no information on his billed stats, but he initially appeared to be more of a junior heavyweight than a heavyweight. He will compete for the first time on January 17th and then again on January 27th. The second new name added to the tour is Bruiser Barry. Bruiser is connected to Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls out of EPW in Perth, Australia and has been training in the NOAH dojo since November of last year. He made his pro debut in EPW in 2007. His stats are 188cm (6’2”) and 100kg (220 lbs).

The updated lists of wrestlers to be used are as follows…..

FREELANCERS:

Masao Inoue (6th,14th)

Kentaro Shiga (14th)

Akitoshi Saito (17th)

Masashi Aoyagi (17th)

Yusuke Shiranami (22nd)

Ryuji Hijikata (27th)

Yoshihiro Takayama (6th, 20th, 27th)

OUTSIDERS:

Satoshi Kojima [NJPW] (19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd & 25th)

Takaaki Watanabe [NJPW] (19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 25th & 27th)

Yuji Nagata [NJPW] (19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 25th & 27th)

Jushin Thunder Liger [NJPW] (Jan. 27th)

Tiger Mask IV [NJPW] (Jan. 27th)

Katsuhiko Nakajima [DIAMOND RING] (6th)

Mitsuhiro Kitamiya [DIAMOND RING] (6th)

Hayato Nanjo [FFF] (27th)

Takaku Fuke [Pancrase MISSION] (27th)

Maybach Taniguchi “Jr.” (17th, 27th)

Shinya Ishikawa [BJW] (Jan. 19th)

FOREIGNERS:

Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana (14th to 27th)

Jason Jones (14th to 27th)

Lance Bravado (14th)

Harlem Bravado (14th)

Bruiser Barry (unannounced)

Side note: Ross & Marshall Von Erich will also return back to Japan on January 14th.

Pro-Wrestling NOAH announced that they will be holding a show on March 22nd to celebrate Takeshi Morishima’s 15th anniversary as a professional wrestler. The show will be held in Morishima’s hometown of Edogawa opposed to the Korakuen Hall where he originally debuted. He says the size of the venue doesn’t matter because he just wants to give back to the people that supported him. No matches have been determined for the show as of yet, but Morishima says that he wants to be champion when he heads back home.

Morishima originally debuted against Kentaro Shiga in 1998; it would not be too far fetched to see Shiga involved in the match along with Morishima.